HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICE - Fichier PDF

266 ❚ Organizational behaviourthat there is a checklist of points to be covered, although the aim of the interviewershould be to allow discussion to flow around the points so that the frankand open views of the individual are obtained. Alternatively, and more rarely,interviews can be highly structured so that they become no more than the spokenapplication of a questionnaire. Individual interviews are to be preferred becausethey are more likely to be revealing, but they are expensive and time-consumingand not so easy to analyse. Discussions through ‘focus groups’ (ie groups ofemployees convened to focus their attention on particular issues) are a quickerway of reaching a large number of people, but the results are not so easy to quantifyand some people may have difficulty in expressing their views in public.3. By a combination of questionnaire and interview. This is the ideal approach because itcombines the quantitative data from the questionnaire with the qualitative datafrom the interviews. It is always advisable to accompany questionnaires withsome depth interviews, even if time permits only a limited sample. An alternativeapproach is to administer the questionnaire to a group of people and thendiscuss the reactions to each question with the group. This ensures that a quantifiedanalysis is possible but enables the group, or at least some members of it, toexpress their feelings more fully.4. By the use of focus groups. A focus group is a representative sample of employeeswhose attitudes and opinions are sought on issues concerning the organizationand their work. The essential features of a focus group are that it is structured,informed, constructive and confidential.Assessing resultsIt is an interesting fact that when people are asked directly if they are satisfied withtheir job, many will say that on the whole they are. This can be regardless of the workbeing done and in spite of strongly held grievances. The possible reason for thisphenomenon is that while most people are willing to admit to having grievances – infact, if invited to complain, they will complain – they may be reluctant to admit, evento themselves, to being dissatisfied with a job that they have no immediate intentionof leaving. Many employees have become reconciled to their work, even if they donot like some aspects of it, and have no real desire to do anything else. So they are, ina sense, satisfied enough to continue, even if they have complaints. Finally, manypeople are satisfied with their job overall, although they may grumble about someaspects of it.Overall measures of satisfaction do not, therefore, always reveal anything reallyinteresting. It is more important to look at particular aspects of satisfaction or dissatisfactionto decide whether or not anything needs to be done. In these circumstances,